Alumnus, Academy Award nominee to discuss 'Life of Pi'

January 10, 2013

LEWISBURG, Pa. — Bill Westenhofer, who was nominated Jan. 10 for an Academy Award for his work in "Life of Pi," will give the talk, "The Visual Effects of 'Life of Pi'" Tuesday, Jan. 22, at 7:30 p.m. at the Campus Theatre in Lewisburg. Admission is $2.

Westenhofer, who won an Academy Award in 2008 for his visual effects work in "The Golden Compass," will break down scenes from Ang Lee's "Life of Pi," showing the visual effects process and how filmmakers combine live-action footage with computer graphics. "Life of Pi" was nominated for an Academy Award for best achievement in visual effects.

A 1990 graduate of Bucknell, Westenhofer has worked on numerous films, supervising visual effects for "Chronicles of Narnia," which received an Oscar nomination in 2005; "Men in Black 2", "Elf," "Stuart Little," "Stuart Little 2" and "Land of the Lost."

He joined the Rhythm and Hues Studio in 1994 as a technical director and supervised visual effects for "Babe: Pig in the City," which won the Academy Award in 1995. He also served as digital artist for "Waterworld."

Westenhofer holds a bachelor's degree in computer science and engineering from Bucknell and a master's degree from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at George Washington University. He was honored with the Academy of Artistic Achievement Award in 2008 by Bucknell's Association for the Arts.

Other honors for his work include the 2007 Best Special Visual Effects from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

While at Bucknell, Westenhofer will meet with students in computer science professor Joshua Steinhurst's graphics class. The event is sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery and the Film/Media Studies program at Bucknell.

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